December 2011 Kansas Jayhawks Wiretap

Kansas Jayhawks coach Bill Self said he’s seeking improvement in a lot of areas, including setting screens and running offense to score, as well as defending for the entire shot clock.

“If I was going to pick something I’d want to happen more than anything else ... we don’t play with a personality,” Self said. “We do not play with the personality where it shines through, and there’s energy exuding all personnel out there on the court.

“I don’t feel that yet. Certainly that’s something we’ve always done a great job in. It doesn’t have anything to do with trying hard, nothing like that. It has more to do with understanding: ‘OK, this is what we need, and if we do this, we’ll become better defenders; we’ll do this; we’ll do that.’”

USC, the alma mater of Muhammad’s father, Ron Holmes, is apparently out, as is Texas A&M.

“I narrowed my list down actually to six,” he said at the City of Palms Classic. “I think it was a good thing for me to narrow them down to six because a lot of schools were calling that I wasn’t really interested in. So now I can stay grounded on the court and get ready and go through the season.”

Kansas point guard Tyshawn Taylor is expected to play Monday against Davidson, just eight days after surgery to repair torn meniscus in his right knee.

"Yeah, I do. I do think he'll play, unless something happens negative today," Self said. "He's going to go up and down a few minutes today (in practice). Just a few. He won't play 30 minutes or anything. If he doesn't have a setback today, I think he'll be OK to at least play a little bit tomorrow."

Self said Taylor shot on Friday "pretty much full speed. We waited to see if there was any swelling, and there wasn't. He practiced yesterday some, but only half court. We waited to see today if there was much swelling, and there wasn't. We're going to let him go up and down today a little bit — 10 minutes, 15 minutes — and see how he does there. We'll wait and see tomorrow if there's any swelling. But if there's not, there's no reason he can't play some tomorrow."

Kansas coach Bill Self believes guard Tyshawn Taylor is taking more criticism this season than is warranted.

“I can do that probably more so than anybody, because he’s the point guard and he’s the quarterback and he’s more responsible than anything,” Self said during his Hawk Talk radio show on Monday. “But the bottom line is, instead of seeing sometimes what he doesn’t do, I think we should look at what he does do. Because if you look at us, we don’t beat Long Beach State if he doesn’t play. And we certainly don’t beat Ohio State if he doesn’t play.”

Against Ohio State, Taylor contributed nine points to go with a career-high 13 assists in 35 minutes. He also had seven turnovers.“He can do so many things to get in the paint to force help to get us easy baskets that when he doesn’t make some plays, we look at the negatives as opposed to all the positive things that he does,” Self said. “He’s got to tighten his game up. We’ve talked about it. We’re going to watch a lot more tape. He’s got a chance to watch a lot of tape right now and (we can) try to help him with that.

“But gosh, does he have a lot of talent. I mean, that is one talented kid that’s a phenomenal athlete.”

Julius Randle says that he has discussed teaming up with some of the other top recruits from the 2013 incoming class, most notably Jabari Parker and Aaron Gordon.

"We have a special class with a lot of top talent," Randle said. "I have played with Aaron Gordon at Nike Global … I really enjoyed playing with him. He plays hard all the time. He's a great teammate."

Randle and Gordon both have Kansas on their recruiting list.

"I have talked to Jabari about playing together," Randle said. "He said he wants to play with me."

Randle and Parker have Kansas, Duke, North Carolina and Missouri in common.

Andrew White has committed to Kansas, picking the school over North Carolina State, West Virginia, Louisville, Texas, Georgetown and Richmond.

White is a 6-foot-20 small forward from Virginia.

“He has improved the most in one year's time span (of anybody he’s ever seen),” his AAU coach Ty White said. “He can stroke it out of this world. His body is built like a man. He is putting it (ball) on the deck a lot more while rebounding it very well for his position. He plays both ends of the court.”